Turnitin is an online plagiarism detection service that serves under Turnitin, LLC, a US-based company. The company itself is a subsidiary of Advanced Publications. Advance Publications owns various websites, companies, local newspapers and business journals and periodicals. It is also the parent company for one of the world’s largest social networking platforms, Reddit.
Turnitin commenced its operations in 1998. The company sells licenses for its software to universities and high schools. Similarly, their primary business model is a software as a service (SaaS) business model. The license allows users to access the website to check submitted documents for plagiarism. The software does so by comparing it to its database and the content of websites.
On top of that, Turnitin’s software provides valuable services to students. The software allows students to learn how to improve their writing and avoid plagiarism. Some universities or high schools require students to submit their work directly to Turnitin. The company has faced lots of criticism for its software and services provided.
Currently, Turnitin has over 30 million users. However, these include students only. The other users also include 15,000 institutions. Its user base has grown significantly over the years due to the helpful tools provided to both students and institutions. The company’s popularity was also why Advance Publications acquired it for $1.75 billion in 2019.
Turnitin claims that its software promotes academic integrity. However, some students believe that it is unnecessary and assumes they will plagiarize. The software also identifies contract cheating, checking whether a third party wrote a student’s work for them. It is a part of “Authorship Investigate”, which uses machine learning algorithms and forensic linguistic practices.
What is Turnitin’s business model?
Turnitin uses a combination of two business models. The first is a licensing business model. As mentioned, every institute that uses the software must pay an annual fee to access it. The company does not disclose how much this fee is. The company also doesn’t disclose its pricing on its website or any other sources.
Each institution that wants to use the company’s software must go through a process to get a price. This pricing may differ from one institute to another. However, there is no information regarding the basis the company uses for providing licenses. Institutions must schedule a meeting with a sales representative to get a quotation for the software.
The second business model that Turnitin uses is a subscription business model. Although not exactly subscription-based, the company charges institutions for every student that uses the platform. Similar to the licensing fee, there is no publicly available information about the pricing. However, the company quoted a $2 fee per student almost a decade ago.
Turnitin is not a public company. Therefore, there is a limited amount of information available about its operations. The company may earn money from other sources as well. However, there is no specific information that clarifies the company’s business model. Nevertheless, the primary income sources for the company include the licensing fee and the per-student fee.
How does Turnitin work?
Turnitin accumulates two types of users. The first include institutions, such as universities or high schools, which are the primary source of income for the company. The second type of users are students who submit their work to the software. The app requires both users to interact with its software to provide an overall experience to users.
Turnitin allows institutions to use its platform for their students. Institutions can buy access to the software and allow users to interact with the software on their behalf. These users primarily include teachers who can streamline their revision and grading process. Teachers can ask their students to submit their work to the software.
Turnitin uses its software to check any submitted work against its database and online content. By doing so, it can check if the students copied or got inspiration from any external sources. The software then flags potential plagiarism. Then, the teachers must compare the work with the software’s sources to check for actual plagiarism.
However, Turnitin also provides services to students. Students can upload their work to the site but not submit it. By doing so, they can check for areas that the plagiarism detector may flag. This process will give them an idea of what areas of their work may have potentially plagiarized content. Students can then revise their work to avoid plagiarism.
There are two primary users that use Turnitin’s software. Given below is a description of how it works for each user group.
Students
For students, the Turnitin site allows access to their teacher and institute’s page. Students can upload their work to this site. Once they do so, the software can identify and plagiarism in their work. As mentioned, the software compares the work to a database and online content. It includes 165 million journal articles and subscription content sources, and 45 billion web pages. On top of that, it also checks the work against 900 million student papers.
As students submit their work to the platform, it adds to Turnitin’s database of student papers. Therefore, the company can use their work in the future to check if others have copied it. Students can also check their own work before submitting it to remove any instances of potential plagiarism. Once they do so, they can submit it to the database.
Teachers
Teachers can use Turnitin’s software to check their students’ work. Once Turnitin’s software examines the work, teachers receive a report about it. This report usually includes a percentage of how much the work matches with other sources. Then, the software marks and colour-codes the work to make it easier for teachers to check it.
However, the software does not make any decisions on its own. It is for teachers to decide whether any potential plagiarism in the checked work is actual. The software only allows teachers to identify any potentially plagiarized content and presenting it in a manner that is easy to understand. Once they check the work, teachers can make decisions accordingly.
For teachers to access Turnitin’s platform, they must have access to the platform. The institute that purchases a license for the software provides this access. Once they can use the platform, teachers can allow their students to submit their work directly to the institution.
How does Turnitin make money?
The primary users for Turnitin are institutions that want to use its software. Every institution pays an annual licensing fee to the company. However, that is not the only source of income for Turnitin. Every institution has hundreds of students that will submit their work to the platform. The company also charges each institution a fee for every student.
Therefore, Turnitin makes money from two primary sources. The first source includes the annual fee that institutions pay to access the company’s software. Then, institutions have to pay a fee for every student that uses the platform. The company quoted a fee of $2 per student in the past. However, it has not revealed its current prices for almost a decade.
Students that use the platform do not have to pay any fee. It is because their institute will pay the fee. The more the number of students that use Turnitin’s software, the higher the costs for the institutions will be. Similarly, the platform does not charge any fee for teachers using the platform. However, the institute must have paid the license fee to allow its teachers to access the software first.
Turnitin’s parent company, Advance Publications Inc., generated revenues of $2.4 billion in 2016. However, it is also a private company and does not disclose its information publicly. Some experts believe that Turnitin contributes over $120 million to these revenues. However, since both companies are private, the information may not be accurate.
Conclusion
Turnitin is an online plagiarism checker tool that serves institutes, such as universities and high schools. There are two types of users that use its software, students, and teachers. Turnitin’s business model combines a licensing and subscription-based business model. The company makes money from both sources. However, there is no information related to the specifics of how much it makes.
